http://www.sabor.com/index.cfm?FuseAction=Page&PageID=1000000
http://www.actforsanantonio.com/
http://www.actforsanantonio.com/
http://www.actforsanantonio.com/
http://www.fieldstone-homes.com/
http://www.fieldstone-homes.com/
Carver Communications - Index
Carver Communications - 5.1.08 - Index
One of the main goals for SABOR
in 2008, according to the 2008 SABOR
business plan, is to begin the process of
creating and implementing a public Web
site that will allow users to search for
SABOR MLS properties on
www.sabor.com. A task force has been
created to start the discussion of this
process and to explore different avenues
of ways to begin this project.
You may be asking yourself, “What
exactly is a public Web site?” Maybe
you’re thinking, “www.sabor.com is
already available to the public.” Yes, anyone
can access the main page of
sabor.com, but what this task force hopes
to accomplish is to make a Web site where
anyone in the world can view properties
on www.sabor.com and look at properties
for sale in the area. The idea is to provide
another way consumers can look at properties
and their statistics online, similar to
efforts already put forth by the Houston
Association of REALTORS®.
To help educate the task force,
some members of the subcommittee
By Bob Leonard
Chairman, San Antonio Board of REALTORS®
Public Web site and HAR Presentation
attended a MLS and Web site seminar
held in Pennsylvania and gained insight
from Boards across the nation on how
their members accepted or rejected the
idea of a public Web site. To further educate
the task force and for others who are
interested, there will be a presentation at
SABOR on May 6th at 9a.m. by the
Houston Association of REALTORS®
about the successes they have had in driving
consumers to their site, and how
HAR presents its information to their consumers/members.
HAR’s success has
ultimately led them to be named the number
one site in the country based on total
unique visitors, according to comScore.
Everyone is welcome to attend this seminar
and no reservation is required.
A.C.T. on May 10th, 2008
How many of you have heard about
the A.C.T. campaign? A.C.T. stands for
Athletics, Culture and Tourism and is an
extension on the Visitor Tax to help the
city of San Antonio in four key areas: to
help with the San Antonio river improve-
May 1 2008 REAL ESTATE NEWSLINE 3
ments, to help build youth and amateur
athletic fields all over the city, to improve
rodeo grounds and community arenas, and
to help build a performing and cultural
arts center. According to www.actforsanantonio.com,
this tax would be an
extension on the Bexar County Visitor’s
Tax that is already in place. It would not
be a new tax or an increase of any tax that
is already established, and it would almost
be entirely from visitors to our area; very
little would come from the local residents
of San Antonio.
The San Antonio Board of REAL-
TORS® has made an endorsement on the
Athletics Culture Tourism (A.C.T.),
Visitors Tax and is asking its members to
vote YES for all four propositions. Voting
takes place on May 10th, 2008 and early
voting begins April 28th, 2008. Voting
locations can be accessed through
www.actforsanantonio.com or by dialing
210-335-VOTE.
MLS Conversion beginning in
August
The MLS Committee and the
SABOR Board of Directors recently took
action to begin steps to change MLS vendors
upon the expiration of our current
agreement with Fidelity National
Information Systems (FNIS). Paragon
will be replaced with ConnectMLS, provided
by dynaConnections - an Austinbased
company. Starting in August of this
year, the San Antonio Board of REAL-
TORS® will run the MLS Paragon system
parallel with ConnectMLS until the final
changeover that will take place October
1st, 2008. During August and September,
all listing entries will be done through
Paragon with several updates per day
being made to ConnectMLS. There will
be various training sessions during August
and September, and training will continue
after the official changeover in October.
During 2007, members were surveyed
and task groups were formed to
determine the effectiveness of the current
MLS provider. The feedback provided
showed that members did not feel a
change was necessary unless a better system
was found that would not cause MLS
fees to increase. From the responses that
were provided, "Requests for Proposals"
were sent to eight leading MLS vendors to
examine all system options available to
the San Antonio Board of REALTORS®.
The Task Force analyzed proposals, participated
in product/system demonstrations,
and after several months of study,
made a final recommendation to the MLS
Committee and the Board of Directors to
go with ConnectMLS, provided by
dynaConnections.
ConnectMLS runs on new technology
and has a faster response time than
our current provider. It also provides
built-in tutorials through each function
and will offer four additional counties:
Bandera, Atascosa, Wilson and Medina.
Members will also be able to look for
properties by subdivision for those counties
that provide it.
If you have any questions about the
change in MLS systems, please contact
SABOR’s Member Services Department
at 210/593-1200.